Garment bags have met with significant acceptance by travelers for many reasons, including their relatively light weight which makes carrying them easier, the ease with which they can be packed with clothes and other items, their flexibility to fit within certain otherwise confining spaces, an ability to carry them into the passenger compartment of commercial passenger aircraft, and others. One of the common disadvantages of garment bags is that it is difficult to confine small items such as shoes and cases for personal toiletry items within the garment bags. Many travelers, rather than leave such smaller items loose in the garment bag, pack them in separate smaller suitcases. However, the necessity to use a separate smaller suitcase makes traveling more difficult because the smaller suitcase must also be carried and accounted for in addition to the garment bag.
Attempts have been made to make garment bags more useful as a single luggage article. An invention described in U.S. application Ser. No. 673,351, titled "Garment Bag With Improved Packing Capability", filed Nov. 23, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,513, which is assigned to the assignee hereof, describes an improved garment bag in which pocket-like enclosures are provided within the bag in which to pack a relatively small number of relatively small items, such as two shoes. Wardrobe luggage cases, which were commonly used many years ago, employed internal compartments in which certain small items could be packed. Some of these internal compartments were even removable after the wardrobe was opened. Wardrobes fell into disfavor and remain in disfavor because they are basically very large, heavy, hard to handle, and they have substantially rigid outer shells or surfaces. Wardrobes are usually more inconvenient for use than the present day large sized hard suitcases. More modern attempts have been made to attach garment bags and garment bag-like enclosures to small cases, such as small suitcases or attache cases. Usually these attempts involve wrapping the garment bag around the sides and bottom of the small case and attaching the ends of the garment bag at the handle of the small case. Other attempts include folding the garment bag-like enclosure in an accordion-like manner and connecting the garment bag enclosure to one side of the small case.
The prior attempts at combining garment bags and small cases have all centered primarily around attempts to make the transportation of the two separate luggage articles more convenient. If any actual increase in convenience has been obtained by such prior arrangements, such increases in convenience seem somewhat insignificant since such arrangements do not seem to enjoy significant popularity among travelers. Certainly it would not appear that these prior attempts at combining garment bags and small cases have resulted in any significant improvements or advancements in making the luggage article more readily usable in a personal toiletry and clothing housing sense, as compared to that level of convenience which two separate luggage articles would themselves achieve.
It is against this general summary of background information that the present invention and the significant improvements available from the present invention have evolved.